I can credit my dad with helping me to start the obsession by taking me to road atlanta when I ws a kid. I just got way more into it than he ever did as far as the participating side of things. One of my favorite daydreams involving the miata I am buying soon is me and my dad doing track events together.
byron12 wrote: I can credit my dad with helping me to start the obsession by taking me to road atlanta when I ws a kid. I just got way more into it than he ever did as far as the participating side of things. One of my favorite daydreams involving the miata I am buying soon is me and my dad doing track events together.
I've been trying to get my dad to an event for over a year. I was surprised at how easily I talked him into it this time.
Just keep wearing on him.
Well, my dad did his first full track day at Thunderhill yesterday. And he loved it. He wants to join me when I do one again. I think he may be hooked. All the pictures from the day are here: http://s267.photobucket.com/albums/ii303/salanis42/Thunderhill%201-18-09/
He did very well out there. He was one of the fastest drivers in his session, and up against some big money machinery. He said he really loved the way the Miata handled, and likened it to a Lotus (he used to have a Europa). The tires stuck well, and he had a good instructor that helped to push him to go balls out. He was passing people all over the place, and only rarely getting passed. He did have two spins/offs.
His last session, he had been doing so well that the instructor let him out on his own (didn't sign him off to solo, but wanted him to have his last run of the day by himself). He had his gnarlier spin on that run. This was on turn 8, which is a really fast turn that you normally hold flat out. It was late in the day, his line was off because he'd let someone pass him, and he tried to do the turn at the same speed he'd practiced all day. He passed the apex and choked or something, because he knew he'd screwed up, and spun it backwards. He went both feet in correctly, and slid backwards off the track. Once again confirming why my car is the dirty track slut. I had to pick vegetation out when he brought it in. He had a ton of fun though.
I had a ton of fun. The car did really well. This was my first time on DOT-R tires. Wow, were those great. The car felt super composed all day. I got rid of my problem with locking up the brakes, was able to go deeper and faster and was just more comfortable and confident all day.
I also had my first off at a track day. I'm pleased with how I handled it. I screwed up turn 1. I tried to enter the turn a bit differently and turned in way too late. I came up at the apex, over a full car's width away from the berm and just knew I was in a bad situation. I held the throttle neutral to try to bleed off speed, and just kept the car on the line it was set on. Ended up going strait off the track, but in control.
A friend of mine was there with a Go-Pro camera. We got some vid of a couple of my runs, and he acted as a chase-cam for most of my dad's last session. I'm really interested in the chase cam footage. I will post links to that when it is available.
Yes. My dad is hooked. He loved the Miata so much, he is now hunting for one of his own. We'll see how that goes.
Awesome write up Salanis. The great thing about Miata's. Reliability. You probably beat on the car all day. I'll bet it shrugged off all the abuse.
Xceler8x wrote: Awesome write up Salanis. The great thing about Miata's. Reliability. You probably beat on the car all day. I'll bet it shrugged off all the abuse.
Thanks!
We absolutely flogged the snot out of it. My dad was amazed by the abuse it took in stride with two drivers going back-to-back. That and the lotus-esque handling are what really sold him on the Miata.
The only hiccup was that we needed to get a couple of gallons of gas from a friend between sessions, because we went through almost a full tank after lunch.
Ran into the same issue with mine at the track. I won't go out now with any less than 1/4 of a tank. I like to run with half at least.
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